NEWS

On Friday, December 7, more than 60 leaders in business, education, and government gathered at the Northwest Career and Technical Center in Mount Vernon for an Apprenticeship Roundtable convened by the Career Connect NW team, which includes the Northwest Workforce Council, Skagit STEM Network, and EDASC, along with others. Keynote speakers Suzi LeVine, Commissioner of the Washington State Employment Security Department, and her husband, entrepreneur Eric LeVine, set the stage by reviewing their experience with the Swiss apprenticeship system while Suzi served as U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland. This experience led to Washington State Governor Jay Inslee’s recent mission to Switzerland...

We have recently completed the season of graduations and inspiration – including Leadership Skagit and two graduations for the Sternlicht family. Aside from pride, excitement, satisfaction, and hope, these events can energize us to work for improvements and greater causes for our communities. I hope you will permit me some personal observations on this theme. I found that kind of inspiration on attending my son David’s graduation this spring from the Haas Graduate School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. The class was filled with the next generation of brilliant, hard-working people who want to make the world a...

Fostering workforce talent and attracting human capital is at the core of economic development. Ensuring that all students in Skagit County have access to opportunities and resources to develop the skills, knowledge, and capabilities to thrive and succeed in an increasingly competitive and technology-driven employment environment is an important priority. In support of this goal, EDASC works closely with the Skagit STEM Network, whose mission is to provide resources and a collaborative environment for educators, administrators, and community-based organizations that better enable them to help Skagit County students acquire the knowledge and skills required to meet the challenges of the...

On May 26, thirty-six Skagit County participants graduated from the Basic and Intermediate Computer Course for Latinos, an innovative business preparedness course coordinated in partnership by Skagit Valley College, the Northwest Agriculture Business Center (NABC), and EDASC's Latino Business Retention and Expansion Program. These classes, which were held at Skagit Valley College across eight Saturdays, provided students from Skagit County's Latino community with a solid foundation in fundamental computer skills--including operating Microsoft Office Software utilizing databases, spreadsheets, word processing, PowerPoint, and an introduction to the Internet--within a Spanish language environment while using English as the computer language.
This basic business course provided much needed knowledge for...